Traditional jigsaw puzzles made of paper and other durable materials have entertained puzzle players for decades. However, with the advent of personal computers, computer-generated jigsaw puzzles have also become popular.
In computer-generated jigsaw puzzles, a puzzle picture is electronically broken up into puzzle pieces and the puzzle pieces are scattered across an electronic viewing display. A player then manipulates the pieces on the display using a mouse, keyboard, joystick or other similar device to pick-up, rotate, reposition and connect puzzle pieces together until the puzzle picture is unscrambled.
Existing computer-generated jigsaw puzzle pictures include non-moving images, similar to puzzle pictures made of durable material, and moving images in which each puzzle piece includes a portion of the moving image. This change from still to animated or moving images increases the difficulty of the game.
One such computer-generated, moving jigsaw puzzle game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,084. The Mirsky patent discloses a method for generating a moving image jigsaw puzzle game on an electronic display and controlling the play of the game in response to play operations. In particular, the Mirsky patent discloses how puzzle pieces are repositioned from one location to another on the visual display.
Such computer-generated moving image jigsaw puzzle games are often quite difficult for many players, especially young children and new players. Therefore, a need exists for a computer-generated moving image jigsaw puzzle game which enhances interaction and excitement for all game players by providing various levels of difficulty and by providing assistance to select game players in solving the moving image jigsaw puzzles.